Bruins ice Sabres; Capitals playoff opponent

Sunday

Apr 8, 2012 at 6:00 AMApr 8, 2012 at 1:55 PM

The third period has been the Bruins' hallowed ground all season long, so when the Buffalo Sabres scored twice in a 104-second span of the third to take a 3-1 lead in yesterday's meaningless regular-season finale, the B's felt violated. “It seemed to spark us for sure,” captain Zdeno Chara said.

By Bud Barth TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The third period has been the Bruins' hallowed ground all season long, so when the Buffalo Sabres scored twice in a 104-second span of the third to take a 3-1 lead in yesterday's meaningless regular-season finale, the B's felt violated.

“It seemed to spark us for sure,” captain Zdeno Chara said. “Once we get a little bit angry or motivated, then we play with a lot more jump and energy. That's what happened.”

As soon as Jason Pominville's 30th goal of the season made it 3-1 at 8:46, Boston became a team possessed, flying all over the ice. Seventy seconds later, Tyler Seguin scored his second goal of the game at 9:56, and linemate Brad Marchand tied it up — on the power play, no less — at 12:21.

Then, just for good measure, Patrice Bergeron — who centers both players and assisted on all three goals — came up with the only strike of the shootout to give the Bruins a scintillating, 4-3 victory over the stunned Sabres at TD Garden.

The win capped a 49-29-4 regular season for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who split their 102 points evenly between home and enemy ice.

Boston had to wait until late last night to learn that its first-round playoff opponent will be Washington, which beat the Rangers, 4-1, while Ottawa completed its late-season collapse earlier with a 4-2 loss to New Jersey.

The second-seeded Bruins and No. 7 Capitals will play the first two games of their best-of-seven opening-round series on Thursday and Saturday at TD Garden.

Seguin's two goals gave him a team-high 29 for the season, edging Marchand (28), and made him the youngest Bruin ever to lead the club in scoring (67 points). At 20 years, 2 months, he passed Bergeron, who was 20 years, 8 months when he led Boston in scoring in 2005-06.

“It's pretty amazing,” Seguin said. “It's definitely an honor. I did not know that. Like I was saying before, my teammates make a game a lot easier for me.”

Seguin, who had scored in the second period to give the B's a 1-0 lead, wasn't surprised at the late surge by his Bruins, who were far and away the best third-period team in the NHL this season.

“I think it's all about character in the third period,” Seguin said. “We seem to be a — knock on wood — third-period team sometimes, so it's definitely nice to do it again.”

Tim Thomas, despite giving up three goals (two to old friend Brad Boyes), was outstanding early and late. He made brilliant back-to-back stops on Pominville in the third minute, and foiled a breakaway by Nathan Gerbe with 1:50 left in regulation. He also clinched the win by stopping Pominville in the shootout after Bergeron had put Boston ahead.

Terrible Tim even got his nastiness in gear for the postseason, knocking Gerbe down with a cross-check after the Buffalo forward brushed him in the crease while jostling with B's defenseman Mike Mottau just before Pominville's goal.

There was one down note: Bergeron, who got extremely hot in the faceoff circle down the stretch and took the NHL lead in that department, had an average day (10-10) and was edged out by one-tenth of a percentage point for the faceoff title by Chicago's Jonathan Towes, 59.4 to 59.3 percent.

Everything else, though, appears to be going good for the Bruins. Chara and Dennis Seidenberg, who were a fearsome shutdown pair in the playoffs last spring, were reunited on defense yesterday, and all seems hunky dory in Beantown.

“I definitely feel good,” said Milan Lucic, who had six shots on goal and played a strong game except for a giveaway that led to a Buffalo goal. “I think we've got our whole team going again, we've got all four lines up front playing well, Timmy's playing well, and so are our defensemen, so we've managed to kind of get that confidence back in our game.

“We know what's coming up, so we're looking forward to this challenge, and we should feel good about it going into it.”